Tag Archives: respect

Therefore one must be in subjection, not only to avoid God’s wrath but also for the sake of conscience.For because of this you also pay taxes, for the authorities are ministers of God, attending to this very thing.Pay to all what is owed to them: taxes to whom taxes are owed, revenue to whom revenue is owed, respect to whom respect is owed, honor to whom honor is owed. Romans 13:5-7

One of the things that defines a culture is its communication patterns. And, by “culture”, I don’t just mean ethnicity. The legal profession is a culture. The world of healthcare is a culture. The businessworld is not only a culture unto itself, but consists of lots of subcultures as well. Being a distinct culture, each of these arenas has its own patterns of communicating. There is a way of talking that has evolved and that must be learned in order to fit in. Everyone knows this intuitively.

With the GOP debates this past week, we in the U.S. are entering into a season of politics (“season” means 16 grueling months of seemingly interminable mudslinging). Politics is a culture unto itself, with its own patterns of communicating. It is a culture which has become so pervasive here on social media, it almost defies having a “season” any longer. And the patterns of communication born out of our adversarial, two-ideology political culture have invaded (and superseded) virtually all other cultures, including the church. If I want to “fit” in this culture of Fox news versus MSNBC news, I must wear my agenda on my sleeve and lead out into every discourse wearing my colors proudly. I must learn pointed and outright mean-spirited ways of disparaging the other ideology, making it appear irrational and ridiculous. Of course, I may quote …